Administering an injection is a process which presents a number of risks and challenges for users and healthcare professionals, both mental and physical. Medicament delivery devices typically fall into two categories—manual devices and autoinjectors. In a conventional manual device, manual force is required to drive a medicament through a needle. This is typically done by some form of button/plunger that has to be continuously pressed during the injection. A conventional auto-injector may provide the force for administering the medicament by a spring, and a trigger button or other mechanism may be used to activate the injection.
For use of manual devices and autoinjectors, safety and usability are of the utmost importance. Thus, there remains a need for improved medicament delivery devices which include components or mechanisms for user and patient safety (e.g., to prevent misuse, needlestick, etc.) and enhanced usability (e.g., making the device easier to user before, during and after an injection to improve dose accuracy and compliance).
WO 2012/145685 A1 discloses an auto-injector apparatus which comprises a single-use cassette and an auto-injector. The cassette comprises a housing and a sleeve movably disposed in the housing. A syringe may be disposed in the sleeve and secured therein with a lock cap. The lock cap is affixed to a distal end of the sleeve and contacts the distal end of the syringe. A shield remover extends through an opening in a proximal end of the housing for removing a needle shield which covers a needle of the syringe. A cassette identification arrangement is provided on a surface of the housing to enable the auto-injector to identify the cassette. The auto-injector is provided with a detector for reading the cassette identification arrangement.
US 2010/185178 A1 discloses an injection device including a syringe having a needle, a barrel and a plunger. The device is configured to provide an automatic injection cycle and includes a drive coupling arrangement between a driving spring and the syringe. In operation, a drive force can be selectively transmitted between the respective first and second parts of the drive coupling arrangement depending upon their relative rotational positions such that, when the first and second parts are in a first relative rotational position during the dispensing stage, a driving force is transmitted to the plunger to drive the plunger into the barrel, and, when the first and second parts are in a second relative rotational position during the retraction stage, no force is transmitted to the plunger to allow the plunger and the syringe to retract.